The brain can respond to some kinds of pain and damage by lowering its pain threshold. This can lead to devastating pain in many parts of the body.

On the issue of whether two sides in a dispute are "morally equivalent," or even in the same region of morality.

False equivalence is a kind of fallacy that can be used to argue for various conclusions. Often that fallacy is used to defend unjust power; the article presents examples. The article also presents examples of false or misleading accusations of use the fallacy.

Was it better to be in Eastern Europe under the Soviet Empire than in Central America under US dominion? I think that depends on where and when. Stalin's rule also included massive arbitrary imprisonment and execution, sometimes almost at random, but he died in 1953 and after him the repression was less wild and brutal (but it was still repression).

I have a feeling that the term "genocide" is being stretched when applied to the repression in Guatemala. It was a crime against humanity, for sure; but genocide is something different. In order to be genocide, the killings would have to have been intended as a step towards eliminating the Maya of Guatemala. Was that the army's intent? I don't know for ceertain, but the basis presented here seems insufficient to show that.

*Nathan Maung says [Burmese prison thugs] punched, slapped and beat him, and kept him blindfolded for over a week.*

They also chained him in painful positions and denied him sleep.

They didn't know, for the first few days, that he was a US citizen. So his treatment may be representative of how they treat political prisoners who are citizens only of Burma. But he says that some prisoners got worse torture than he did.

Black Lives Matter activists and supporters in the UK are getting death threats; when they state their support, they are accused of "inflaming racial tensions".

I think that the thugs who are quick to murder blacks are the ones who inflame the racial tensions. The issue is how to change their behavior.

*The case for Brexit was built on lies. Five years later, deceit is routine in [UK] politics.*

The difficulty of getting the health minister to resign demonstrates the level of tolerance for deceit. Indeed, several instances of deceit in government, and outcry in response to them, were covered up in the past year.

*From Grenfell Tower to the Met police, shirking responsibility has become endemic.*